's left of Roman political forms is mere theatrics devoid of substance; and yet, since thereisnoalternative to this theatrics, no going outside of it, and since it is presided over by so consummate an actor, who never lets fall his mask of abiding by Roman political decorum, a kind of substance is strangely reified. It seems both that what constitutes the Roman state has been irretrievably gone for a long time, and that what constitutes it can be nothing other than the Rome we see. With his measures to placate the censorious eyes of his own government, Jonson

grace)]’
(1999, p. 159), who, while staying in the household of her sister,
married to the Seigneur de Balançon, was courted by the
latter’s brother, the Marquis de Varambon, who wished to marry
her. His brother, however, was determined that he should go into the
Church, and so the girl’s mother removed her from the situation.
Marguerite relates the sequel – and thereisnoalternative to